


The Moon Spirit Festival

by Beryll (Rynthjan)



Series: Sir Yaden [19]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, F/M, Violence, phoenix empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-23 19:26:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4889119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynthjan/pseuds/Beryll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anita has been planning her comeback for a long time. Will she succeed this time or will Sir Yaden and his brave squire Ivan thwart her again...?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

\--Yaden?!--

Ciel's voice came into his mind so suddenly and loaded with so much raw emotion that Yaden barely managed to dodge the sharp shard of fire directed at his head. He immediately threw up a solid shield of rock all around himself to block the many companions to that fireshard altogether.

He and Ivan were training on the smaller, barren island Yaden had pulled up for their exercises. At the moment, they were working on Yaden's ability to juggle several tasks at once which meant the was using a hovering multitude of small rocks to block Ivan's many attacks. That had been going rather well until Ciel so unexpectedly distracted him.

\--Can Pebble jump to Kismet?-- Ciel asked, not waiting for any acknowledgement from Yaden.

Normally, he Empire's most talented telepath was faultlessly polite, so this had to be a real emergency. He also was calm and quiet instead of nearly panicking, normally.

\--Yes, Myriam finished programming all Empire system coordinates into the jump drive before she left.-- Yaden replied, trying to project calm into the turmoil of Ciel's mind. --Why? What's happened?--

He felt how Ciel latched into that calm and used it to pull himself together. --Kismet is under attack by N'Bosoti.-- He then explained. Yaden had the vague sense that Ciel was juggling several other telepathic conversations at the same time and was trying to keep this one as short and concise as possible. --They have blocked off all psionic access to the system. We can't reach anyone there and even Ulysses can't port in or out. Lady Beverly's technical teleport seems blocked off as well. They've also highjacked entertainment channels on several major planets and are transmitting live what they are doing there. As far as they can tell their aim is to spread as much panic and despair as they possibly can.--

That sure sounded like something the damned bugs would delight in doing, Yaden thought grimly.

\--And you think Pebble might get in?-- He asked.

\--It is our only option to send aid right now. Lady Beverly and Ulysses are working furiously on a solution, but neither of them can give an estimate. Even with Pebble being in transit for several hours she it is still very likely she will get there faster than anyone else can.--

Yaden didn't even want to consider how incredibly pissed off Ulysses would be at being blocked like that. The head of the Psions Guild and Prime of Serin had an ego the size of a small sun and not being able to do something drove him to even greater efforts than Yaden. They trained together occasionally, far away from any inhabited system, testing new ideas and usually wrecking havoc on a spectacular scale.

\--I'm not sure what kind of aid me and Ivan will be able to give against a host of N'Bosoti.-- Yaden cautioned. He was well aware of their abilities and even though they had managed to kill one of the monsters he didn't feel confident they could defeat several at once. Yet.

\--I have Saint Cornelius and a squad of his Belligra standing by, waiting for port onto Pebble.-- Ciel replied immediately. --The N'Bosoti have the battle ship they excavated on Yaiciz in orbit around Kismet. The plan is that Saint Cornelius will deal with any N'Bosoti on the ground while you take care of the ship.--

Yaden chocked out a short laugh. On the one hand it was rather reassuring to have a living saint at your back. On the other hand it was rather daunting that they expected him alone to 'take care' of a giant, malevolent monstrosity like the ship they had faced on Yaiciz before. Then again, he had finally gotten a handle on how to grab the horrible material the N'Bosoti built all their gear with. This time, the ship would not elude his grasp as easily. It still was a terrifying prospect.

That wouldn't keep him from giving it his best shot.

\--I'm on my way to Pebble and briefing Ivan.-- He told Ciel. --Please port Saint Cornelius to Pebble when I get there.--

Ciel sent a wordless feeling of acknowledgement in reply and maintained their connection on a low level. That none of his other activities bled through was quite a feat and Yaden doubted any other telepath would have been capable of it.

He dropped the earthen shield he had erected around himself. Ivan had of course realized that something was going on. He had moved closer to Yaden, his face full of questions.

"We have a mission," Yaden explained, while already pulling up a slab of stone from the ground to fly them to Pebble's landing pad over on the main island. "The N'Bosoti are attacking Kismet. They'd blocked off the system so we need to use Pebble to jump there."

"Why would they attack Kismet of all places?" Ivan asked and quickly hopped onto the rock.

"No idea," Yaden answered.

\--Because they are hosting the Moon Spirit Festival.-- Ciel supplied to both of them.

He added a neat package of condensed information, explaining that the festival took place only every eight years, when Kismet's three moons stood in a special formation over a particular plateau. Over five hundred thousand people from all over the Empire were gathered for the spectacle. Apparently it was a mix of religious event, funfair and all-you-can-eat two day picnic. Ciel also conveyed what the N'Bosoti were transmitting over the Empire's entertainment channels. They showed the battle ship hanging above the plateau, partially blocking the view of the moons, casting an ominous shadow over the gathered people. It also showed the crowd cowering in panic from the N'Bosoti stalking through their midst, randomly slaying people. Untrained in any way to resist the fear induced by the mere presence of the ancient monsters, even security guards could do nothing at all.

"Shit," Ivan muttered.

\--The whole Empire is watching this catastrophe.-- Ciel added for Ivan. --We have to stop this. And in a way that will reassure humanity that we are not helpless victims to these monsters.--

\--Ciel, I think we understand.-- Yaden admonished gently.

The telepath was still hovering on the edge of panic, even if he was hiding it well, but putting more pressure on wouldn't make this easier for Yaden and Ivan. He felt how Ciel once more pulled himself together.

\--I'm sorry.-- Ciel sent to Yaden privately. --Not being able to do anything. It's... terrible...--

There probably was no one else Ciel could share this feeling with and Yaden sent back his wordless calm and reassurance that he would do whatever was in his power to stop the attack.

They had arrived next to Pebble and hopped off their rock. Moments later the air next to them shimmered and a squad of eight heavily armoured Belligra priests appeared. They wore the special armour that Lady Beverly had designed for Saint Cornelius’ use. It was forged from some arcane metal, more durable and lighter than ceramsteel. White, with the red symbol of the Belligra etched into the breastplate, it gleamed in the sun. The man leading them was even shorter than Yaden, but a whole lot bulkier in his armour. Even though he was in his seventies, his strawberry-red hair was only greying at the temples and he looked as fit as a man half his age. A huge, two-handed sword was secured to his back and a helmet clipped to his utility belt. He wore an expression of grim calm. Saint Cornelius was - as always, really - ready for battle.

Even more ready for battle than usual, Yaden corrected himself as he noticed that all seven of his companions were Youh'Kai of various ages. The living Saint had brought his Seven Immortals with him.

He greeted Yaden with a calm nod, entirely unfazed by the fact that he was heading out to face a horde of ancient, nearly invulnerable monsters. Then again, he had defeated a whole fleet of them more than forty years ago when the N'Bosoti had first reappeared and laid siege to the Youh'Kai home planet Far'Gesh. For him, it probably was just another Tuesday.

His companions didn't look worried either. If the legends were true, they were Youh'Kai heroes from various ages who had spent centuries locked up in an artefact forged by one of their gods, their souls held in stasis until they were needed again. Yaden studiously avoided thinking about that bit.

"That thing flies?" Cornelius asked with a dubious look at Pebble.

"It does," Yaden confirmed. From anyone else he would have felt insulted, but Saint Cornelius was someone he respected as way out of his league. He also usually travelled with the Bandit, the fabled ship built by Lady Beverly for the Duke of Malicorn. "And she will get us to Kismet." He just had to add that. After all it was something the Bandit could not do.

Cornelius just shrugged. "Let's get going then. There's bugs to kill."

Yaden had met him only once before when he and his family had visited Malicorn to receive lessons on how to kill N'Bosoti. Now he'd have a chance to witness a live demonstration. Hopefully.

He pulled open Pebble's main hatch and climbed into his beloved ship, silently wondering whether she would survive ramming the N'Bosoti battle ship. He had put a lot of work into her armour lately, strengthening it with what he had learned about the material the jumpgates were built from as well as what he had learned about the Calarni's armour and even a bit of what he had managed to discern about how the N'Bosoti themselves built their tech. It wasn't something he wanted to try, but as a last resort it was an option he had to consider.

Ivan was showing Saint Cornelius and his squad to the planning room where they wouldn't damage anything with their bulky armour so Yaden headed straight to the bridge. He pulled up the data from the jumpdrive to see how long a jump from the P2 system to Kismet would take. It came up with around three hours.

\--Ciel?-- He thought at the telepath, who was still a vague presence at the edge of his mind. He felt Ciel's attention return to him. --We will be in transit for at least three hours. Remember, you won't be able to reach us during the jump.--

They had tested this extensively. From Ciel's point of view the Pebble and everyone on board just disappeared from the universe while she was in a jump. Myriam was fascinated by that fact and had theorized that jumping actually placed them outside the universe for a limited time, circumventing space. She had plans for more extensive studies on the subject for when she returned from her annum nobilis.

\--If you don't contact me when we emerge from the jump I will know that the N'Bosoti's block is still up.-- He continued. -- Any idea how they are doing it so we can maybe try and take out the block first?--

\--Lady Beverly says it must be some sort of technical device. Since they like to centralize efforts she guesses the blocker will be on board the battle ship.-- Ciel answered.

Yaden snorted. So it would be him against the battle ship anyway.

Sensing his feelings it was now Ciel's turn to send reassurance. --You faced down a volcano when you were five and without any training. If there is anyone who can do this, it is you.--

\--Thanks for the vote of confidence.-- Yaden replied.

Ciel's words brought up memories of that fateful moment. Yaden had never been able to clearly recall what had happened when he had awakened to his powers all those years ago. What he did remember, was a sense of urgency that overruled all else. A need to be what he needed to be. Very few human beings ever went through something so profound. Still, Yaden was determined to do it again, if he had to.

He lifted Pebble up from the landing pad and started the warm up for the jumpdrive.

\--Please let Colin know where we are going.-- He told Ciel. --And can you give us a quick hop into clear space so I can initiate the jump as soon as possible.--

Moments later he felt Pebble gripped by another mind and they reappeared in open space well away from P2. The jumpdrive controls showed a countdown of two minutes until they would be ready to jump.

"We will jump in two minutes," Yaden announced over Pebble's inner com system. "I'll come down so we can make some plans as soon as we are in transit."

He watched the clock count down in silence, extending his senses to first touch P2 and then let his mind flow out even further until he was stretched so thin he could barely feel his body anymore. The emptiness filled him with its cool calm.

\--Good luck.-- Ciel thought to him as the clock reached zero.

Yaden initiated the jump.


	2. Chapter 2

Ivan held on to the arms of his chair tightly as the ground rushed up to meet them on the main view screen. It wasn't quite a crash but close enough that he felt like it jarred every bone in his body. Yaden stood steady as a rock in front of the Captain's chair, his feet planted apart, his arms stretched out to both sides. Pebble burrowed a trench into the plateau, but it was mercifully short since Yaden was leaning back and violently yanking her to a stop.

Luckily, he had managed to hit the strip of land the N'Bosoti battle ship had fired at before so there were no new casualties.

They had emerged from their jump near Kismet itself, cloaked and ready for battle. Since there was no contact from Ciel, they had to assume that the situation remained unchanged. During the jump, they had made some rudimentary plans with Saint Cornelius. Basically the idea was to get them on the ground as quickly as possible so the Belligra could engage the N'Bosoti who were attacking the crowd on the ground. And Yaden preferred have a solid planet beneath his feet when he tried to take on the battle ship. Ivan's task would be to guard Yaden's back while he concentrated on the ship.

For a short moment they had hoped to be able to sneak past the battle ship hanging in a low orbit above the plateau, but the N'Bosoti had not been fooled by their cloaking tech.

Focused as they were, both Yaden and Ivan had sensed immediately when the battle ship powered up its weapons. With Yaden controlling the Pebble directly, he had been able to dodge several shots of the purplish blasts while racing downwards. Ivan had managed to get a look at the situation on the ground.

Apparently the battle ship had fired at the plateau at least twice, leaving the impact sites of their shots baked to crystallized wasteland. Nothing in those spots could have survived. The crowd had been decimated by several thousand people and was cowering in complete panic from the N'Bosoti still stalking among them. It was a nightmarish scene.

Ivan was just about to open a com to Saint Cornelius and his squad who were waiting near Pebble's outer hatch, ready to disembark as soon as they hit the ground, when Yaden dodged another shot from the battle ship - only to fly straight into a second one, fired from another canon. It had been a trap.

It should have vaporized Pebble. Ivan had seen plenty of footage of what kind of destruction N'Bosoti weapons could wreck. Even though Pebble was armoured with rock and metal, she should not have had any chance to withstand a direct hit. As wide open as Ivan was to the energy around them he felt the hit, felt how a great part of it flowed around and through them as if they weren't truly there. Some was absorbed by Pebble's armour somehow. And the rest went straight into Yaden's energy reserves. Only the kinetic energy of the blast actually hit them and punched Pebble downwards.

Yaden roared in what Ivan could only call triumph and when Ivan looked over at his friend he saw that Yaden was grinning savagely. Apparently he had done something to Pebble to strengthen her way beyond anything that was human technology or even remotely natural.

They were still coming down much too fast, making a crash inevitable.

Pebble came to a grinding halt and Ivan flipped open that com and summed up the relevant information: "We are on the ground. I've counted at least fourteen N'Bosoti out there. Go!"

He didn't wait for any reply. Saint Cornelius knew exactly what he was doing. Instead he turned back to Yaden, who was shaking himself like a wet dog, coming out of his intense connection with Pebble, still grinning.

"That was a nice warm up," his friend growled. "Now let's get out there and show them what we've got."

They headed for the same exit hatch Saint Cornelius had used since that was sure to have been cleared of any hostiles. Ivan itched to ask Yaden whether he felt he would be able to take on that battle ship, but his friend seemed so lost in concentration already, he didn't want to distract him. He's just have to wait and see and do his own job.

Pebble's nose had burrowed into the ground, but the hatch was clear. Ivan jumped out first to get a good look around. The smoking carcass of a N'Bosoti lay on its side just outside. It had a huge, gaping hole where the head connected to the torso. It looked like something incredibly hot had punched clean through it. The living saint wasn't playing around.

A short distance away Saint Cornelius and his Immortals were standing in an uneven line. Each of them was radiating power and menace. There was a flaming wall of white fire in front of them and beyond that Ivan could make out the shifting, dark shapes of several N'Bosoti who apparently were reluctant to cross the barrier. It was only a matter of time until they would, of course. But until one of them got past the Belligra they weren't Ivan's problem.

Behind him Yaden hopped to the ground. Ivan noticed how he winced when his feet touched the ground. He could only guess that the N'Bosoti weapon which had struck here, had damaged the very planet in some way that annoyed Yaden.

Ivan flicked his flame sabres into existence and turned in a slow circle, carefully scanning all around them for additional N'Bosoti who might be sneaking up on them. With the ship above, the plateau was cast into a twilight. Ivan briefly considered giving them more light by calling up some more fire, but decided against it. His sense of energies was good enough now that he would be able to detect any N'Bosoti by that or the blank spots they became when they were trying to hide.

He could feel Yaden's power reach upward to the battle ship. With the blast he had absorbed before his reserves were full to bursting, still Ivan opened his own power up to his friend so he could draw from him or channel excess energy into him as needed.

It was very tempting to follow Yaden's power and try to help him with wrestling the giant, monstrous battle ship, but Ivan resisted.

It was a good thing he did, or he would have missed the subtle shift in energy atop Pebble behind them. Where there had been nothing only moments before, now a N'Bosoti crouched low, looking like it was ready to pounce. There was something odd about it. It wasn't just the fact that its carapace wasn't the usual brownish-green but an almost carmine-black hue. There was something creepily familiar about it.

Whenever he had heard a N'Bosoti speak it had made him cringe with fear, but this one's word made icy horror grip his heart.

"Vanya. I should have known you'd find a way again to mess with my plans," it hissed, making it clear to Ivan who he was dealing with, even if it seemed impossible.

"Anita?" Ivan whispered, trying to accept the fact that his human sister had somehow become one of them and failing miserably. "What... what have they done to you...?"

The creature on top of Pebble stretched up to its full height proudly displaying its razor sharp front legs and staring at him with all six eyes. Eyes that also were more carmine than red in colour.

"Done to me?" It chuckled in a terribly human tone. "Oh Vanya, you silly little worm. I have become so much more than you could ever imagine. I am perfect. Immortal. Invincible."

That at least answered the question of 'why' for Ivan. The fact that his sister was insane enough to let herself be turned into a monster shouldn't have come as a surprise, but Ivan still felt shocked to his core. It drove home the point that she truly was beyond help. There also was the terrifying question of 'how'. If the N'Bosoti could do this to one human they could do it to others. Maybe they used it as bait to lure power hungry idiots to do their bidding.

The N'Bosoti - Anita - gracefully jumped off Pebble and Ivan quickly moved to block Yaden from her.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked, more to keep her occupied then actually expecting a useful answer. She had always loved to hear herself speak.

She laughed again, the sound grating on Ivan's very soul. "You think this is one of your cute Phoenix Knight action flicks where the villain reveals her plans to the hero so he can later thwart her? No, Vanya, I am smarter than that." She crouched low again and rubbed her sharp front legs against each other, creating a screeching sound that tore at every fibre of Ivan's nerves. "This time, brother, you won't escape my wrath. This time I will kill you."

He expected a lightning fast attack, either with fire or her pouncing on him, but instead she moved towards him at a leisurely pace, like she thought he would stand there and let her kill him. When she struck at him with both her front legs in a scissor-like move, he easily sidestepped her attack.

"Don't make this any harder than it has to be," she snickered. "The outcome is inevitable. You will die."

She was so sure of herself that Ivan wondered what he might have overlooked. He dodged another slow attack and quickly scanned around, looking for additional foes she might be trying to distract him from, but there was no one.

When she moved in for her next attack she was a little faster, but still by far slower than the frightening speed he had seen in the other two N'Bosoti he had faced in combat so far. Experimentally he twisted just far enough out of reach that he could still strike at her with one of his sabres. She took the hit without flinching which wasn't surprising since he hadn't put much force into it. They exchanged a few more moves, with him easily dodging her attacks every time and tacking her with his sabres.

Either she was faking her relative slowness extremely well or she just wasn't quite comfortable yet in her new body and still learning to coordinate her additional, alien limbs. Or maybe she still wasn't taking him seriously enough to really try.

"What's up, sis?" He taunted her. "Getting old and slow?"

Her lack of success in hitting him was clearly starting to annoy her as she snarled and scrambled after him with angry strikes. It just made her more clumsy. It angered Ivan on a level he couldn't quite explain. He had been in awe, afraid of her all his life. For this? Why she didn't use any fire to attack him was an even bigger mystery.

Until Ivan remembered what Saint Cornelius had told them when they visited him for lessons on N'Bosoti on Malicorn. They hated psions so much because psychic powers were beyond their control, something they did not truly understand and therefore could only ward against as broadly as possible. Was it possible that her transformation had cost his sister her powers? The mere thought shocked Ivan. Her incredible talent had been the thing he had always envied her for, the thing he had tried to surpass her in, the original reason why he had trained so very hard. How could she throw that away?

His vague anger became rage at such careless waste. "You gave up your fire?!" He yelled at her, feeling his rage transform into white hot flame that needed to find a target.

Anita hissed at him in reply, bristling with fury. "I don't need fire to kill you!" She screamed back at him, raising herself to her full height on four legs. "I am perfection! I am..."

She was cut short as Ivan could not hold back any longer. He flung all his rage at her in a searing hot ball of flame. It hit her right in her exposed chest. Her carapace crackled and blistered under the heat and she screeched in shocked pain.

Ivan was almost as shocked as she was. He had hurt her. His attack had fully connected, bypassing all her superior defences.

'You just have to want them dead more than they want to survive.' Colin's words echoed in his mind. He had said that when they discussed how to defeat N'Bosoti.

And had wanted to hurt her. Wanted it with all his being. Wanted her to feel the pain she had inflicted on him for so long.

She was scrambling backwards now, crouching low again, her legs in front of as if she was trying to ward off another attack.

"No..." she hissed. "No... impossible..."

Just like the N'Bosoti who Yaden had killed on Goa.

'If you can make them believe that you can kill them, you can.' Saint Cornelius advice came back to Ivan. 'That's why they fear me.'

The same savage grin he had seen on Yaden's face now spread on his. "Looks quite possible to me," he drawled, lazily swirling his sabres. "Didn't you get the memo? Killing bugs is what we do."

She screamed at him with pure rage, her razor sharp mandibles opening wide. But she was still retreating.

"Better run and hide, little cockroach, before I step on you." Ivan followed her step for step until she came up against Pebble's rocky hide.

"I hate you!" she screeched at him. "I hate you, hate you, tchi'ti'ka, hrkla rothklr..."

Ivan had no idea what she was saying anymore as it was a gibbering mix of clicking and words. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with her now. His rage was gone. He was utterly sure that he could kill her if he truly wanted it. But did he really want to kill her? Wasn't it much more fun to humiliate her?

But then he remembered why he was here on Kismet. This was her doing - at least to some extent. She had killed all these innocent people. She was a monster - now in every possible regard. She would never stop. She had to die and it was Ivan's responsibility to do it.

She must have noticed his sudden calm as she froze in place, her ranting silenced.

"I'm sorry it has to end this way," he said and began to forge that calm will into enough heat and flame to kill her quickly.

He didn't get the chance as once more her body was engulfed by shimmering purple energy and she disappeared.

"Fuck," he muttered.


	3. Chapter 3

Yaden bared his teeth at the sky and the ship above.

He was losing the fight. Not in a spectacular way. They hadn't managed yet to fire another shot. He was always quicker in blocking their weapons by fusing this or that together to create nasty surprises when they tried. He was wreaking havoc with various of their system, destroying whatever he could gain control of.

But it wasn't enough. He had no clear idea how many bugs were on board, but there were enough to repair any damage he did almost as quickly as he was able to do it. He constantly had to wrestle over control of their matter. It was twisting out of his grasp like an especially disgusting slime. He simply wasn't getting anywhere and at some point his energy would run out.

Or they would get fed up and flee and there was nothing he could do to stop them. That wasn't an option. If he allowed them to get away now they could attack again wherever they chose and then they would be even better prepared.

He had to come up with some brilliant solution. And fast.

If the ship had still been buried under ground he was pretty confident he would have had the power to crush it with rock and soil, now. Alas, it was a in low orbit above him and he simply didn't have enough control over it to pull it back down and there wasn't enough air up there to do anything useful with either.

What he desperately needed was an anvil and a hammer to put the ship between. Holding it in place long enough would be hard but not impossible.

Yaden shuddered as his attention was drawn to the three moons which hung perfectly aligned above the plateau. And above the ship.

No, he silently told himself. He couldn't possibly. They were too large, he didn't have that much power. But even as he thought it he was already reaching for the closest one.

Good, solid rock, all the way to its core. It felt like a balm to his mind, which was sore from touching the N'Bosoti matter for such an extended time. Its mass was tremendous. It was...

He gave it a tiny nudge and a shiver of excitement ran through him when he felt it respond. Could he really...?

The mere idea made him recoil. This moon was sacred to the people of Kismet. It was a companion to the planet. A part of its being. He could use and damage that. He had sworn that he would never hurt a planet, no matter what was at stake.

Unless... He closed his eyes tighter as he burrowed his toes into the ravaged ground. Kismet was an old planet. Old and calm and quiet. It had not stirred in centuries, had not had a reason to. Yaden had not taken the time to properly greet it, like he usually did, when he arrived on any planet. He did so now, reaching out to what he perceived as a planet's soul and which no one but him seemed to be able to detect.

Kismet was wide awake, its attention focused on the same ship that Yaden was battling. It didn't have emotions that Yaden could really grasp, but it was not happy.

Communicating with a planet was something he rarely managed unless he had lived on it for an extended amount of time. Pandora, his birth planet, was the exception. Whenever he went there, he could just tap into her and her feelings became his. Here, it was different. Like Kismet spoke another language than he did.

He still tried to convey what he might be able to do. That he might damage Kismet's moon beyond repair.

Planets were inconceivably slow. Human lives were so very short to them. Asking for a decision on such a monumental thing, Yaden didn't really expect any answer.

It ran through him as a shock when he sensed Kismet agree. And not just that, the planet's agreement opened up something to him he had never felt before. The impossibly vast energy reserves of Kismet were just below his toes suddenly, waiting to be used. The rush of power pushed against him, begging to be let in. Too much. As much as that power was in perfect balance with his own, earth calling to earth, he knew he had to be very careful or he would burn himself out to a cinder.  
The battle ship was once more getting ready to fire at him, but he decided to ignore that and instead only kept a loose grasp on them.

Instead he focused on the closest of the moons. A quick scan told him that it was uninhabited. He had two options. Either he needed to move the ship close enough to the moon or he needed to move the moon itself. Yaden didn't need his brilliant daughter to tell him that changing the position of the moon would result in a whole cascade of problems which could easily ruin the planet. If he did that he would have to hold everything in balance until he could put the moon back where it belonged.

He drew a deep breath, coming to a decision. With the new source of power beneath his feet he hoped he would be able to simply overpower all resistance of the N'Bosoti.

First he closed off the connection he had maintained with Ivan. If he burned himself out with that much energy he didn't want his friend to face the backlash.

Then he once more threw his full will at the battle ship. Thinking and planning wouldn't get him anywhere now. It was a matter of wanting, of bending this particular piece of the universe to his will and his will alone. There could be no doubt, no hesitation.

It's couldn't be gradual either. It had to happen all at once to keep the bugs from finding any way to resist or escape.

He felt like his mind splintered in a million hooks and claws as he took hold of every little writhing bit.

And then he shoved.

The battle ship lurched from its place straight at the moon.

The beautiful, solid ball of rock that felt as malleable as dough. It opened up under his hands like a hungry maw and the ship tumbled right into it. Yaden closed his fists and with it the moon. He felt the infernal material of the battle ship rend and tear and try to somehow, impossibly escape the vice of rock but he kept his grip firm. He squeezed harder and harder, grinding the ship into a fine paste and then even more, pouring all his energy into this one deed of utterly destroying what the N'Bosoti had created. He was the moon and all his desire was to crush what was trapped inside of him. It was easy.

Only when the last bit of that unnaturally void feeling was gone, did he relax his grip.

He crashed back into his own tiny body with a groan and fell to his knees.

Everything hurt. The utterly familiar feeling of a very bad mana burn. But that wasn't the worst of it. He felt so much smaller, insignificant, helpless, vulnerable.

The air felt dry and too hot, the ground under his knees and hands seemed to twist like it was trying to shake him off.

A pair of feet appeared in his vision and a voice he didn't recognize said something.

Darkness was crowding in and he just had the time to wonder why the blessed oblivion of unconsciousness refused to envelope him. Then he finally keeled over and everything went away.

-

When he woke up again, the first thing that he noticed was that he didn't really feel anything at all. He'd been through plenty of mana burns in his life and one thing had always been the same - no amount of painkillers could dull the feeling of fiery wires being dragged through every nerve that came with severe mana burn.

For a panicked moment he wondered if maybe he had finally pushed too far and completely lost all sense of his own body. But when he opened his eyes the mute light from the bedside lamp made a stabbing headache appear and his sudden move shifted the thin blanket he was resting under, rubbing most unpleasantly against over-sensitive skin.

Not dead yet, he thought with grim humour, just close to it.

He knew better than to try and use his powers, even though the temptation was great. That he was lying in his bed on Pebble was a good sign that things were going well, but he still felt the need to check the moon, check whether there were still N'Bosoti about who needed killing, check how the people who had been ambushed by the monsters on the plateau were doing. In short, he felt like he was not doing quite enough to be a proper Phoenix Knight.

Slowly and very carefully he heaved himself into an upright position. His head protested violently, his brain feeling like it was being rubbed raw against the inside of his skull. But it was still nothing compared to the crippling pain he should have been in.

Somehow he even managed to pick up the large mug which had conveniently been placed on the night stand. It held some sort of cool liquid smelling of herbs. He held it with both clumsy hand and drank slowly. It soothed his dry throat and settled quite pleasantly in his belly.

By far not as dead as he should have been, he corrected his earlier thoughts.

How had he managed to use a moon to crush a N'Bosoti battle ship while channelling a planet's worth of energy and was still alive and feeling comparatively well? He had grown to accept that the price for overtaxing his body was spending a day or two in agony. Had he really grown that much stronger?

The door to the cabin was pulled open a little and more light poured in, stabbing at his sensitive eyes. Yaden groaned and winced away, but the pain was short lived as the slim figure of his wife slipped inside and closed the door again.

"Hey, love, how are you feeling?" Jenny asked softly and came over to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Not as bad as I should," Yaden answered. "What happened? Where are we?"

Jenny took the mug from his hands and placed it back on the night stand, then took one of his hands and started gently massaging his fingertips. "Still on Kismet. When you destroyed the battle ship, the block fell and Ulysses was able to port in. He, Ivan and Saint Cornelius have been handling clean up. When I heard about your mana burn, I had Ulysses port me in. I've been itching for a chance to test a theory of mine."

Yaden's fingers were tingling, but not in an unpleasant way. "Theory?" he prompted.

Even in the low light he could see his wife's triumphant grin. "Yeah, I've been thinking all along that the whole 'you can't treat mana burn' thing was just uneducated hogwash."

The more she learned about the Empire's medical standards, the more Jenny's disdain for them grew. According to her, the Empire was much too complacent with what they had and no one really tried to push forward anymore. With her Terran education, she maintained she was light-years ahead.

"Obviously, I was right," she said and leaned down to place a light kiss on Yaden's brow.

"This is quite amazing," Yaden agreed. "I feel somewhat uncomfortable, but considering what I did that is a small price to pay. I probably don't want you to explain how you did this?"

Jenny chuckled. "No, love, you don't."

There were plenty of things Yaden was great at, but science in general and medical science in particular where a mystery to him. If Jenny had told him she had waved a magic wand to make his pain go away it would have been more comprehensible to him.

"So can I get up and do things?" he asked, fully aware that his doctor wife was in command until he was cleared as healthy.

"Nope," Jenny shook her head, "You're grounded for at least today. And there really is no reason to get up. Things are well under control."

Yaden sighed. "Are they angry? About the moon?" he asked.

He was pretty sure he hadn't damaged it too badly, but he had still torn it open to bury a N'Bosoti ship inside of it. House Jehanni would probably not react kindly to such a treatment of a sacred moon. But it had been his only option and now he really was too tired to truly worry about it.

Jenny obviously didn't share his thoughts, as she frowned down on him. "Why would they complain? You saved their collective asses in a god-like feat of heroism. They better be damn grateful or I will have words with them!"

Maybe he should just leave it to her to talk to them, Yaden thought groggily. The longer she was massaging his hands, the foggier his mind got. God-feat... The words echoed in his mind unpleasantly. It hadn't even seemed that hard when he did it and now he refused to truly contemplate what he had done.

"You should sleep some more, love," Jenny told him gently and put his hand back down, "sleep, heal and let others do their job and take care of rest. You have done enough."

She sounded so very sure, that Yaden just slipped back into sleep.


End file.
